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Well, my hubby thought, why not weather it, then scotch gaurd it to what Maulmaus said. Maulmaus, you contributed a lot too. Technically, we can credit DCB for everything -- he's the one that went all the way to Aussie the first time.

Trisha and her team "not knowing." I don't think that is the case, it's just that certain material just provides different looks, and it was for their movie shooting outcome, and not to serve our particular costuming needs but-theirs. They could've just picked up fabric at a "left over" warehouse for all we know, instead of having it custom done. Our guess is that they probably did about the same number of costumes as Jango's but we could be entirely wrong. I know that there were at least 5 gauntlets made. And, I know that there probably was a hero suit vs. a stunt suit. We've been picking crumbs of info since 2002. Different types of neoprene for different purposes, and, if it's thickness was different by a hair, then, I don't think it was headliner foam. It's just that Cris' shot was taken so close, it looked thick enough to be headliner foam. We're doing best guess still. So, I guess we should just raid Sansweet's closet again, this time with a pair of scissors

Well... we had the lycra which covers the neoprene custom dyed for us (Thanks to ZamIAm) several years ago. But dyeing neoprene itself... I don't know. That is synthetic and problematic at best - impossible at worst.

Dharma Trading Company here in the US carries just about every kind of fabric dye available. I'm sure there is something similar in the UK - many of their dyes are European. Dharma also has lots of information available on their website about dyeing different fabric types, so you might find your answer there.

Thanks Maulmaus for the information. I didn't realise it was lycra covered but that helps as I've dyed lycra before and had some good colour results.

Cheers,

Natalie

May I ask what you used to dye your Lycra? I'd like to dye neoprene to match my pantone swatch but the only way I've been able to dye nylon lycra in the past was with quite a bit of heat over the stove + Jaquard Acid Dye. Are there any dyes that will work without heat, as there is really no way to heat the lycra/neoprene lamination in a dye bath. First of all, the volume of the neoprene is a problem. Second, I suspect the heat would compromise the bonding of the lycra to the neoprene.

I used Dylon multi purpose dye in a Burco Boiler to get it really hot. Colour was fixed with salt. I started with white lycra and the end colour was a bright lapis blue.

You certainly have a point about the heat seperating the lycra from the neoprene! It would be a bit of a disaster.

Hopefully I'm going to get some samples this week of different lycra covered neoprene. If I get time I'll have a go at dyeing it and see what happens.

Another huge problem... even if you could heat this up without compromising the bond of the fabrics... the volume of fabric is just so great when the neoprene is attached. You need to dye all the fabric at once and unless someone had some kind of massive industrial vat I don't think there is any pot big enough for a stove (or outdoor burner?) to fit the needed amount of fabric into

I almost wonder if there was a way to dunk something like the neoprene I got from Zam I Am which in something like a solution of jaquard textile color/paint just to gray down the color a bit? That wouldn't rely on a heated dye bath... maybe even airbrushing?

As far as how shiny the nylon should be... I did notice that the Zam I Am run of nylon was a bit shinier than that used on the movie costume. The movie costumes nylon does have shine to it, it' isn't totally matte in texture at all. It's just not as shiny as the Zam I Am stuff.

I almost wonder if there was a way to dunk something like the neoprene I got from Zam I Am which in something like a solution of jaquard textile color/paint just to gray down the color a bit? That wouldn't rely on a heated dye bath... maybe even airbrushing?

That's why I wondered out loud what effect UV rays might have on it. Would it just lighten it? Or perhaps it would wash out the color to make it more grey. I don't know, but I might try putting a piece out. I wouldn't be surprised if the original fabric you had a sample of had faded over time.

That's why I wondered out loud what effect UV rays might have on it. Would it just lighten it? Or perhaps it would wash out the color to make it more grey. I don't know, but I might try putting a piece out. I wouldn't be surprised if the original fabric you had a sample of had faded over time.

No no no, I really don't think the difference between the Zam I Am run and the real screen used fabric swatch was due to UV exposure or anything. I think she did the best she could without having pantone guides in her hand, relying on someone else's matches from an oddly lit exhibit - etc etc. The difference in the Zam I Am run and the real stuff is just due to limited information. Not UV exposures or anything IMHO. Dying is tricky business and very frustrating to get color matches. And she had the extra challenge of not physically being the one mixing the dye and just trying to pick something based on lots of photos taken in so many lightighing situations and subject to random photo color processing (photos are often not printed true to color! That's why each photo of the real zam costume taken in studios and in the movie look different.)

Just a theory but I wondered if the original Zam costume colour was airbrushed?? Picking up on Kay_Dee's point about how difficult it is to dye lycra covered neoprene because of the volume but also the risk of fabric separation. Mind you I'm sure thay had plenty of facilities to make these costumes!

There seems to be so many tones in the dye which I think could be achieved by airbrushing over the finished suit. The neoprene backing would help to control the lycra and stop the dye leaking through. Just a thought.

Just a theory but I wondered if the original Zam costume colour was airbrushed??

I really doubt they airbrushed it. It didn't really look that way... the swatch I inspected by hand. Nylon can be dyed. LFL had a huge budget for special fabrics and what not - they had a lot of things custom made for them for those Padme and Queen Amidala gowns for example by textile specialists. They would have had zero problem doing their own run of custom dyed nylon and laminating it to neoprene the way Zam I Am did twice for our group.

They could have either shopped around for nylon colors and then had it laminated to neoprene, or they could have played around with dying nylon themselves and then gotten it laminated once they achieved the color they liked.

Our problem here as fans is we don't have the massive fabric budget they had for the prequels. Otherwise if I had a boat load of money I could dye my own nylon and get it laminated to neoprene. I remember researching it a while back and it was going to be really expensive to do a small run... but I was really thinking about it. And now that I have a pantone match, I should probably look up those old e-mails to see what the place I had found was quoting me... it was so long ago.

We each got 5 yards of the fabric (We're on this side of the pond... ) But I'm thinking there were 10 or 12 people on the run? So 50 or 60 yards was done in that first batch. It was all done commercially and I believe it was all one continuous length or maybe cut into 2 parts for shipment. One company dyed the lycra and then shipped it to another company to laminate it to the the neoprene.

That one is pretty close IMHO. The real difference is the sheen, which that one doesn't have, but the color is darn near spot on. It really just depends on how "screen" accurate you want to be... I've seen costumes done with that fabric that were absolutely awesome.